GATE CITY — About 25 Ku Klux Klan members and supporters Saturday afternoon stood on the steps of the Scott County Courthouse, protesting the recent discipline of three students at Twin Springs High School.

The peaceful event drew about twice that many onlookers, not counting those who drove by in cars and trucks — including one black man in a pickup truck who as he drove by said he had “prayed” the Klan would come to his church and another black man in a truck who said he wanted his child to see Klan members.

The event — marked by periodic chants of “white power” — started about 2:30 p.m. and lasted a little more than 30 minutes. Gate City police and county sheriff’s deputies briefly blocked a side street so the group could move from a parking lot where they gathered and put on robes and hats about 2 p.m. They later moved back across the street, all with no physical confrontations, only some occasional hecklers.